Kuriositas

City in the Sky

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sun, 20 May 2012 16:22:00 +0000

London may never actually look like this, but you can only hope! This project started in the English capital with few companies and artists invited to create a vision for the future mega developed city. The overall Megatropolis project didn't make it to its final stage but the concept grew into this architectural utopia and animation.

City in the sky is a concept about a tranquil oasis above the mega developed and polluted city where one can escape from the everyday buzz, smog and dirt. The concept is inspired by the Lotus flower which is known for its ability to emerge above the murky waters pure and clean. As you can see, it is pretty amazing!

There is No Planet B

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sun, 20 May 2012 13:00:00 +0000

This very short animation has a very clever title – there is no planet B – and poses a number of questions about the future of planet Earth taking in to account it is, after all, the only home world that we have! This certainly does not mince imagery (as it were) - man is shown as something which become a monster and which stamps everything in its path without hesitation.

The animation was created by Teodor Hristov and Ivan Boyanov who make up UM Design, with classical animation methods and techniques were used to create it, including much hand drawing. Illustrator and Flash were then brought in to the equation and After Effects was used in postproduction.

A Sea Slug Symphony

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sun, 20 May 2012 10:23:00 +0000

The Ark in Space takes a look today at the nudibranch, a soft bodied marine gastropod mollusk which many people simply refer to, perhaps somewhat unfairly, as sea slugs. You can see why they gained this nick name (even though it is often taxonomically inaccurate too!) but compared to the land bound version they are an explosion of color and grace. Go take a look at just a few of the 3,000 species.

Image Credit Flickr User Nick Hobgood

Slime Mold - Alien Landscapes On Earth

noreply@blogger.com (John Smith) — Sat, 19 May 2012 12:06:00 +0000

Just the thought of mold is something that makes many people involuntarily shudder. Yet there is more to it than meets the eye – particularly if you are lucky enough to see Kim Fleming’s remarkable macrophotography. Up close we are witness to an enigmatic and beautiful alien world on our own doorstep.

This strange and wonderful thing is Hemitrichia calyculata. It typically has stalked sporocarps. These are fruiting bodies which contain sporangia – the mold version of seeds. They look like the weird plants that featured in numerous 1950s science fiction B-movies. Or maybe even some strange alien egg pods, left to be discovered by innocent space travelers. No need to worry, though – at most they reach two and a half millimeters in height.

This is tubifera ferruginosa, but those in the know like to call it the red raspberry slime, for obvious reasons - even though it dulls with age. Its fruitbodies are bunched together like the fruit and they typically form through June till November. The above specimen is about one centimeter across and these can form up to fifteen centimeters. No danger that they will take over the world then! The one above is immature; later on it will grow to look like a bunch of miniature cigars (bottom).

These look as if they should be in an aquarium somewhere, rather than on a piece of wood. Many people confuse slime molds with fungi and it is true that they do regularly form spore bearing structures that look like those of the real thing. However, unlike fungi, slime mold does not penetrate the wood on which it forms.

When the kids leave home, it is at last time to relax a little. This specimen is cribraria cancellata and the spore cases are empty. This beautifully taken shot makes them look almost ethereal in the white light. The spores would have been a reddish purple color but have long since been released to the wind. This one can reach a massive four millimeters in height.

Anyone for a popsicle? Forming structures called plasmodia, slime molds take in particle foods in the same way that amoeboid way. Things that make you go mmm, number five hundred and seventy six. This plasmodia creeps over the surface of (often) wood and engulfs bacteria, fungi spores and tiny plants. Now, this is beginning to sound like something out of a science fiction film!

As the travelers traversed the Canyons of Cailos, they came across what could only have been the habitat of the original inhabitants of the planet Zorg. It may be easy to get carried away, but this is in fact a species of stemonitis. These are usually chocolate covered slime that form thin cigar like stems which support the spore bearing structure.

This is known as the wasp nest slime mold, or if you meet it at a formal dinner party, then it would be Metatrichia vesparium. The spores do very much resemble eggs. When the plasmodia forms in to a spore bearing structure, like the above, the spores (or sporangia) inside it compress tightly together. This forms what is then called a pseudoaethalium. They are often on stalks, like most of the ones we have seen so far. They can also be what is called sessile. This simply means they have no stalks. In fact the leaves on trees, when they have no stalks can also be referred to as sessile.

Here are some fine examples of sessile slime mold. They are accompanied by a fire-colored beetle larva. If only Roald Dahl was still alive – he would have a field day with all of these ‘things’. A follow up to James and the Giant Peach would perhaps be on the cards!

This would be incredibly scary if it were any more than a few millimeters in length. It is quite
simply amazing that beautifully eerie structures like this occur in nature right underneath our noses and that we so often overlook them.

There is nothing like some fresh sporangia with your eggs and bacon in the morning! This is Stemonits Gled, otherwise known as the chocolate tube slime. They look like a set of sparklers, just waiting to be lit when the fireworks go off.

Kuriositas would like to thank Kim Fleming for her kind permission to share these photographs with you. Please visit her superlative Photostream on Flickr where you can see the rest of her amazing pictures, mostly taken within an 86 acre plot of land that includes creeks, a pond, woods and field in Abbeville County, South Carolina.

Visit myriorama's photostream on Flickr.

I.M. - Intelligent Mechanophant

noreply@blogger.com (John Smith) — Sat, 19 May 2012 10:02:00 +0000

I remember first seeing I.M. (Intelligent Mechanophant) when Catfish Animation Studio first unleashed it on the world – ten whole years ago. How time flies but IM does not seem to have dated that much – it is still leaps ahead of most of the animation on the block. Although Toy Story had been released seven years previously this sort of photo-realism was very, very rarely seen in any animation – and I guess the same could be said today!

It tells a simple enough story. In a factory in the future some mechanical elephants are submitted to aptitude tests. All seems to work until an elephant loses control and turns into a dangerous killer. You may possibly see IM now as something of a museum piece but if that is the case remember that you only get to see the good stuff from history in a museum!

You've Been Mimed

noreply@blogger.com (John Smith) — Sat, 19 May 2012 07:59:00 +0000

Take note if you are a hijacker, holdup artist, housebreaker! When you plan your next robbery (daylight or otherwise) make sure that you do not steal from a group of mime artists. These chaps are tenacious to say the very least and will pursue their stolen property until it is recovered using their special mime secret powers!

This is a hugely enjoyable (not to mention conceptually very clever) animated short by John Kim who created You’ve Been Mimed for his studies at CalArts. It was made using quite a combination of software - TV paint, Photoshop, AfterEffects and Final Cut and comes together very well indeed! Thanks John!

The Fire Rainbow

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:18:00 +0000

If you are very lucky you may see a fire rainbow once or twice in your life. It sounds like it could be one of a series of children’s books – Harry Potter and the Fire Rainbow has a certain ring to it, but this phenomenon is not fiction. If you are in the right place and at the right time then a fire rainbow is something that you will remember witnessing forever.

Image Credit Flickr User Emerging Birder

Image Credit Flickr User PhillipC

To name it properly, a fire rainbow is a circumhorizontal arc. It is also known as a circumhorizon arc but whichever you chose, scientists (and aficionados) call it a CHA. It is given its name because it looks as if a rainbow has spontaneously combusted as it made its way across the sky. It could even be suspected, perhaps, that some malign fairy or goblin has blown the rainbow up to stop some errant human discovering that elusive pot of gold at its end!

Image Credit Flickr User Jeff Kubina

Image Credit Flickr User irargerich

The real explanation behind a fire rainbow lies more in science text books than in a Brothers Grimm tale. A CHA is a kind of halo – which is an optical phenomenon. These appear around the moon – or in this case the Sun. You have probably seen a halo yourself around a strong light source – take a look at street lights in the fog for example.

Image Credit Flickr User Just Us 3

Image Credit Flickr User Carplips

Although there are many different types of optical halos, a CHA is caused by the refraction though ice crystals in cirrus clouds of light from the sun. Refraction happens when the speed of light is reduced inside a particular medium. This particular refraction happens when light goes from air without cloud to air containing cloud. In this case it is vital that the cloud is cirrus in shape.

Image Credit Flickr User Gustavo

Image Credit Flickr User Chris Pirillo

A cirrus cloud is one of those thin, wispy ones, often with tufts sticking out like disheveled hair! They can be huge – covering so much of the sky that you cannot see where one ends and another begins. When they are a massive sheet they are called cirrostratus. They are formed at enormous heights – over eight thousand meters. There is very little moisture at those heights and that’s why they are so skinny!

Image Credit Flickr User Ashamar

Image Credit Flickr User Sagebrush Photography

So, what happens when light hits a cirrus cloud and what special conditions are needed to form a fire rainbow? The refraction of the light causes it to separate from its “white” form to its different components (which people call wavelengths). The person on the street would say that the light is bent out of shape and split up in to all the different colors that make it up. In other words, a rainbow – or in our case, a fire rainbow!

Image Credit Flickr User Doug Aghassi

Image Credit Flickr User lu6pj

Image Credit Flickr User 93402

So, why don’t we see fire rainbows as often as (its now more mundane!) cousin, the rainbow? For a start the sun has to be at least fifty eight degrees above the horizon for one to occur – and you have to be lucky enough to have cirrus clouds around at the same time! Because of the necessary height of the sun you will not see a fire rainbow north of fifty five degrees – and likewise further south of the magic fifty five degrees. You may occasionally see one if you are high up on a mountain further south or north, but it is not likely!

Image Credit Flickr User eaghra

Image Credit Flickr User roujo

There is more! The ice crystals in the cirrus cloud have to be horizontal to refract the sun. If they are then the arc is formed. Ice crystals have six sides, meaning that they are hexagonal. The light goes in through one of the side faces of the crystal. Then it is refracted and it leaves through the bottom horizontal face. Below is my rather poor attempt to reproduce the process in PowerPoint!

Image Credit Wikimedia

Image Credit Flickr User schristia

It is vital that the crystal is aligned just so as otherwise the light will not separate in to the rainbow like colors we expect. If the alignment is correct then the whole cirrus cloud will “explode” in to a flaming, fire rainbow!

Image Credit Wikimedia

So, if you are lucky enough to see this phenomenon, perhaps it is a good idea to make a wish! The conditions for a fire rainbow are so exact that it means that to see one is a rare sight indeed. When nature does us this sort of favor by giving us a gift such as this, then perhaps it is only right that we make a wish when we encounter it! It may not be very scientific, but to be honest, would you care?

First Image Flickr User Carplips

Boogie Woogie

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:23:00 +0000

There is very little chance that the Blitz was actually like this but certainly the inhabitants of London in the early 1940s certainly sought temporary escape from the everyday threat of being bombed out of house and home by Mr Hitler and his allies.

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy was a major hit for The Andrews Sisters and an iconic World War II tune - and this is a wonderful reinterpretation of the song.

So we are willing to forgive the marvelous Puppini Sisters (who willbe playing Paris in June) their slightly rosier that reality recollection of this period of British history! This is certainly a beautifully executed piece of escapism, created by the folks at Sherbet. Press play and start tapping your feet!

Princess of the Magical Tears

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:02:00 +0000

You have probably had something akin to this yourself- friends and acquaintances discover that you are able to do something (well!) and then with no further ado they take full advantage of your good nature. Before you know it they have told their friends and family and before long you seem to be the all round skivvy for a host of people.

In our world the skills involved might be the ability to repair broken PCs, fix leaks – and so on! In various Disney type kingdoms the skills may be a little more, well, diverse. So, when a princess discovers that she has magical tears she had better be careful that the wrong people don’t see this particular skill at work! This very funny animated short was made by students at CalArts this year – and it could be described as post post ironic – and is perhaps a taste of what we can expect in movie theaters in a few years!

Question that Kids Always Ask about the Human Body

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:41:00 +0000

Kids ask all sorts of instantly perplexing questions and some of them are bound to be about the human body. Not only that they can often catch you off guard and ask questions which you think you should be able to answer but just can't. Below I present eight questions that youngsters ask a lot and answer them so that you never have to be feel ever so slightly dumb again! If you can remember them, you may impress your offspring no end. If you cannot then remember the magic answer that can be used whenever a child asks a demanding question – because.

Why does hair go gray?

Image Credit Flickr User Kevin Dooley
The simple answer here is because people get old. Not an answer that satisfies your average child though! It is all to do with pigment and cells. The hair is like a tube that is full of both and in-between are spaces. In young people this space is filled with a fluid and this has the job of keeping the cells and the pigments in their place. That means that young people keep their hair color really well because, let’s face it, they are full to brimming with fluids of one kind or another. As we get older we don’t produce as many – ahem – fluids and the space between the cells and the pigment is filled with air instead. This means that the pigment is gradually lost and the process of graying reflects that.

Why do your hands go wrinkly in the bath?

Image Credit Flickr User nhanusek

It’s all about sebum! This can produce hilarity among a group of ten year olds because they see bum everywhere and they love double entendres as much if not more than adults. Sebum is produced from the sebaceous gland (each hair has one at its, err, bottom) and it is pumped out to make a layer that stops Mr H20 getting in to our skin. It also keeps it bouncy and stretchy. However, we do not have any hairs on the palms of our hands – or for that matter the soles of our feet! The water can then get in to our skin and makes it wrinkly. The wrinkliness - rather than puffiness or swollenness – is caused because of the ridgy way the layers of our skin are joined together. A simple answer here might be simply because our palms aren’t waterproof!

Why do we blush?

Image Credit Flickr User Andrew Pescod

We have all had a red face at one point or another and it’s all to do with sympathy! Or rather it is when our sympathetic nervous system goes in to overdrive. This is a system of nerves that we have no control over whatsoever. The nerves become more active due to what we are experiencing in the real world. So, an ordinary encounter with a friend, someone we find attractive or a customer can turn out to be socially embarrassing due to no fault of our own! Another reason for blushing is a little simpler. When we experience heightened emotions it causes an increase of blood to the face. Blood is red and you know the rest of the story. The reason we don’t stay red – now that would be funny – is that our nervous system returns to normal after a short time.

What is the funny bone?

Image Credit Flickr User One Lucky Guy

Well, for a start, you can tell the inquiring enfant terrible that the funny bone is, in truth, a nerve. It runs through a ridge in the bone really close to the inside of the skin. The proper name is the ulnar nerve and it is called this because its route is directly through the ulna, which is one of the bones on your forearm. It’s the bone on the outside – get them to give it a feel! The ulnar nerve is a very important nerve because it gives us the feelings we have in our hands.

When you stick people in the ribs with your elbow, they might tell you that your bones are very sharp! That is because the ulna sticks out. So, the ulnar nerve, being so close to the surface, is easy to bump. When the ulnar nerve is knocked it can be quite painful and pain can often cause people to laugh just as much as cry. This is why it is called the funny bone.

Why do men have nipples?

Image Credit Flickr User Shoes on Wires

Most kids know that women’s nipples serve a purpose. They can question though, why on earth dad has them too. Until around the tenth to fifteenth week in the womb there is no evidential difference between male and female embryos. After this, the hormones kick in (strange that it is around the same time, except only in years, when it comes to children!) and if dad has passed on a Y chromosome then a boy begins to form. When the second chromosome is an X then the embryo will become a girl. Before the hormonal kick in, however, the nipples have already been produced. Once made, they cannot be dissolved back into the fluids in the womb! So, that’s why men have nipples because at some point (for a very short amount of time) everyone is a girl!

Why is urine yellow?

Image Credit Flickr User epsos.de

For the answer to this question we have to look inside the body to the kidneys. The kidneys are there to do two things – the first is to make sure that waste is filtered out of our blood. The second is to keep the amount of salt we have in our blood at the same level. So, when we take a leak the main stuff inside the urine is water, salt and the rubbish our body doesn’t need. The main substance that we don’t want from the cells in our bodies that we get rid of through our urine is ammonia. From blood it is the “hem” bit of the hemoglobin (Who put the “heem” in the hemoglobin?” as the old song goes!). This is called bilirubin and was discovered by a gentleman called William Rueben. That very poor joke aside, the ammonia and the billirubin get to the liver and are converted in to substances that are much less dangerous to us.

Urea comes from the ammonia and the bilirubin is converted to something called urobilogens. Salt, urea and water have no color. But! Urobilogens are yellow! So if you have had a lot of water to drink your urine will appear lighter. If you haven’t had much water to drink then your urine will appear yellow, getting darker and darker the more dehydrated you are. If this is too much information to take in, tell the kid it depends on the amount of bananas we eat.

How fast is the fastest runner?

Image Credit Flickr User Mike Baird

Very fast. That’s 43 kilometers per hour, which is twenty seven miles an hour. This, of course, is only over short distances. At this point reflect that although the adult male can run at this speed for only a short amount of time a small version of an adult can ask questions ad infinitum. Then go try and figure out why.

Do your ears grow all your life?

Image Credit Yvonne in Willowick Ohio

Sometimes! The only parts of the ear that can continue to grow are the lobes. Most people will not experience this as once the head stops growing (although with some people it never seems to!) then so do the ears. The only organ of the human body that continues to grow throughout life is the nose – and this only a teensy weensy little bit. You could perhaps punish your offspring for their interminable biological questioning by telling them that their ears and nose will grow a millimeter a year for their whole life. That will stop them asking questions for a while as they ponder a Pinocchio like future!

First Image Credit - Flickr User Trippography

Victim

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:46:00 +0000

Before you click play on this animated short, please be warned that although not explicit it does contain scenes which may distress you. It tells the story of Mohammad Mostafaei, an Iranian lawyer who has lobbied against the death penalty in his home country for the duration of his professional life and is based on an interview with him. It focuses in on the story of Behnoud Shojaee, a teenager who in many other countries would probably have been convicted for manslaughter – but not in Iran.

This certainly had a profound effect on me although no one needs to argue against the death penalty in my household (or country for that matter). Yet this reinforced my belief that the death penalty is never the answer in a world where governments and cultures should be judged by how they treat their criminals.

This animated short was commissioned through Guardian Films, as part of Amnesty International’s work to stop the use of the death penalty worldwide – visit their page against the death penalty here. It was made by Sherbet, a Bafta winning Animation Production company specializing in high end visuals for the television, film and music industries. The film does not seem to have a title so I have created one - it is up to you to decide for yourself who the victim was.

Shine a Light for Nature

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:51:00 +0000

This is something else! You may have heard of light painting, which we have featured before on Kuriositas. Up to this point most of the examples of the form I have seen are static, so to speak, with the aim of capturing an image, through light, in a single shot. This rewrites the rules. Instead, what we get here in animated light painting (in a form known as light writing - for now) which through a stop motion technique enables us to see the drawings actually move and really inhabit their temporary environment.

This video was created by LICHTFAKTOR, a collective of young artists based in Cologne, Germany where this was created. As performers and professionals they are constantly pioneering new territories of expression – and I think this counts! Unsurprisingly this won the the German Web Video Award 2012 in the Jury and Audience Price category AAA (Academy Approved Art). Enjoy and possibly, like me, scratch your head and wonder just how they actually did this! You can also see their previous work, Star Wars Vs Star Trek on Kuriositas.

Measuring the Universe

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Mon, 14 May 2012 21:00:00 +0000

The universe is huge but we can measure distances to places which are incredibly far away. Yet how is it done? Parallax can be used to measure vast distances and this animation, by the Royal Observatory Greenwich explains how the movement of the earth can be used to calculate the distance of the stars away from our little blue dot.

All well and done but stars which are even larger distances away from us, however, do not seem to move at all – so how do we work out how far away they are? This is where objects known as Standard Candles come in to the equation – as we know their luminosity they can be used to measure distances. Still puzzled? Then take a look at this video from the micro exhibition Measuring the Universe: from the transit of Venus to the edge of the cosmos which is at the Royal Observatory Greenwich right now. If you are in London then go see it - it’s on from 1 March–2 September 2012 and its absolutely FREE!

Love Valley – Seeing is Believing

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sun, 13 May 2012 20:16:00 +0000

Love Valley in Cappadocia, Turkey certainly has a claim to fame – a very large one. Rather euphemistically named, the valley is home to rock structures that bear a passing resemblance to… well - make your own mind up. Seeing, as they say, is believing.

Image Credit Flickr User Cachalan

Cappadocia (Kapadokya in Turkish) is a region of exceptional natural wonders, none more so than the giant monuments left by Mother Nature in Love Valley. Situated in the very heart of modern day Turkey this natural wonder sits on a high plateau over a thousand meters in altitude. Rainfall is sparse in this area and the place has hot dry summers and bitterly cold snowy winters. There is little rainfall and so the region is generally arid. In this environment these huge phallic natural structures seems like some sort of ancient homage to male fertility. However, they are far from man-made despite the possible resemblance to manhood.

Image Credit Flickr User Astique

The closest human habitation is the small town of Göreme. Although you might expect hordes of tourists visiting such a place this is not the case. The Turkish are gregarious but modest people – you do not get group outings to Love Valley to see the ‘willy shaped’ rocks as you might had they occurred in any number of other countries. As such the town is small and friendly with little commercialization as such. What you will find there, however, is a very genuine and relaxed atmosphere and a warm welcome. Although it is unlikely that you will get lost it is considered the right thing to hire a local guide when you head out to see the local geological features.

Image Credit Flickr User TesKing

Image Credit Flickr User Dachalan

If you want to see a unique geological site, then this is certainly it – no run of the mill vague shapes here. These structures mean business. And they weren’t made by Mother Nature having a funny five minutes – these strange pinnacles are in fact eroded volcanic ash. You need to be pretty healthy to take all of this is as generally people will go for hikes around the valley rather than driving. If you are really not inclined to healthy walking then you are able – at some expense – to hire a hot air balloon and see the whole site from the skies.

Image Credit Flickr User Queen Esoterica

Image Credit Flickr User Ze Pinho

Image Credit Flickr User Dachalan

The local people grow apricots and squash for a living and a little from tourism. This is something more than subsistence although the area is still relatively poor in occidental terms. The whole region is rich, however, in thousands of years of continuous human history. It is also the most visually stimulating region of Turkey where the erosion has formed not only these sensuous shapes in the volcanic rock but caves and clefts where people have carved out homes from which they conduct their lives and business. As you can see the structures are not restricted to the ‘Valley of Love’ itself – the town itself boast more than a few.

Image Credit Flickr User Charles Fred

The landscape seems foreign – alien almost. You could almost expect Captain James T round a corner followed by a reptilian adversary. One can only imagine Kirk’s knowing reaction to the shapes of these rock formations. Although the landscape looks inhospitable in the extreme the soil is mineral rich. This makes it an ideal place for growing fruit and vegetables which means the whole area of Kapadokya meets a lot of Turkey’s agricultural needs. Turkish wine is on the rise in terms of reputation and Kapadokya has many vineyards and wineries – quite a surprise in a Muslim nation.

Image Credit Flickr User Chars Fred

Image Credit Flickr User Alaskan Dude

When you tire – as well you might – at looking at fifty meter high phallic geology then there are other things to do around the small town of Göreme.

Image Credit Flickr User Rafa

There is an open air museum which can be visited by walking about a mile outside of the town at the edge of Love Valley. There you are in for something of a surprise – seven hundred year old Christian cave paintings. They were produced by monks inside the cave churches that they excavated from solid rock. Altogether it could be said to be one of the world’s more unusual museums. It is a little expensive but worth every Turkish lira.

Image Credit Flickr User Darcy McCarty

Image Credit Flickr User Alaskan Dude

However, it is the strange rock formations outside of the town’s perimeter in Love Valley that people find the most memorable. Kapadokya means the ‘land of the beautiful horses’ in Turkish (and it is advisable to learn a few words and phrases – the locals will appreciate it greatly). Of course, no one comes here to see or trade horses but they come to be inspired by the landscape around them – quite like nothing on earth.

Image Credit Flickr User Ryanxchow

Image Credit Flickr User virtualwayfarer

Most tourists come in the summer, so to see these formations in the snow is quite unusual.

Image Credit Flickr User Dachalan

Image Credit Flickr User Rick Lem

The rock formations are a result of volcanic eruptions in ancient times. Then, millennia of erosion did its work on the igneous rock. Igneous rock is formed when magma (the molten stuff!) cools down and becomes solid. It can – as in the case of Kapadokya – be weathered away and create some rather peculiar – or in this case phallic – geological leftovers.

Image Credit Flickr User CharlesFred

It could be suggested that the Cappadocians could have been more forthright in the naming of the valley, but their natural modesty probably forbad it. Love is a universal word, after all, and there is nothing that could be considered remarkable in its resemblance to the female equivalent of these enormous formations in the area. Perhaps ‘Willy Valley’ would just have sounded a little bit silly anyway. After all, hand in hand with Lake Titicaca the world might very well go to hell in an innuendo ridden handbasket.

Image Credit Flickr User vin60

Image Credit Flickr User Jungle Boy

Altogether this area of Turkey offers the visitor a variety of different holiday experiences that are – to say the least – that little bit different. From hiking, biking, to hot air ballooning, Kapadokya offers unusual ways to see the site – and what sights they are.

Image Credit Flickr User Queen Esoterica

First Image Flickr User Queen Esoterica

Crayon Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:21:00 +0000

A young artist is commissioned to paint over some old art and proceeds to do her job. Yet as she does so she is sucked in to another world where she meets and eventually befriends a dragon who has something of a liking for crayons.

This lovely animated short is by Toniko Pantoja who created it as her second year project at CalArts. I particularly like the loose way that the characters in this animation have been colored – rough strokes, almost as it they were brush strokes on a larger (perhaps unfinished) canvas. It certainly makes for a beautiful story – thanks Toniko!

The ATM

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sun, 13 May 2012 11:47:00 +0000

What happens if your fingers are too big to work the ATM? It probably won’t happen unless, like the protagonist here, you are a great big giant blue... thing. This is an amusing short short (and we all like short shorts!) by Rikke Asbjoern.

Incidentally the first automated teller machine (if you have ever wondered what the A, T and M stand for in ATM) was first put in to use in 1959 in the Kingsdale Shopping Center in Upper Arlington, Ohio even though the 1972 2984 CIT (Cash Issuing Terminal) was the first true Cashpoint, similar in function to today's machines. Although the machines would not become widespread until the late 1970s this is one machines that we would now struggle to be without!

The Mystery of Resin

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sat, 12 May 2012 14:17:00 +0000

No one knows for absolute sure why some trees secrete resin. However, with the aid of some marvelous macrophotography, although the mystery surrounding this subject cannot be solved for certain, its beauty – at times deadly – becomes evident.

Image Credit Flickr User Paul Garland

Resin is a chemical that oozes out of various trees. It is known as a secretion rather than an excretion. Excretions are purely waste products whereas, although the reasons behind resin are still a little obscure, most scientists believe that it has some sort of purpose or function. It is probably not simply to trap insects, although there is something almost morbidly satisfying about the sight of an insect being ‘consumed’ by resin. Perhaps it is the fact we have watched Jurassic Park too many times and take some satisfaction in imagining a scientist in the year ten thousand working out the DNA of an amber trapped insect. Most probably it is the wonder of seeing something trapped in time as perfectly preserved as it was on the day it died.

Image Credit Wikimedia

Image Credit Flickr User Roc&RM

Resin is a hydrocarbon – that is it is made up of two elements and two elements only – hydrogen and carbon. So, it also qualifies as a compound, which is when something is made up of two or more elements. What is more it can also be called an organic compound – which is when one of the elements has to be carbon. Some hydrocarbons are impure as they contain traces or have bonded with other substance, and the same can be said of resin, so in this sense it is impure. So, all in all resin is an impure organic compound hydrocarbon – which is quite a mouthful to say the least.

Image Credit Wikimedia

Image Credit Flickr User Ciberado

Resin has a multitude of uses and is highly valued the world over. It is used in varnishes, which is a hard and transparent finish and it is pretty obvious why that idea first occurred to someone centuries ago. It can also be used as an adhesive – perhaps the insects trapped inside it gave one of our ancestors that idea – and is one of the ingredients that can be used to glue or stick one thing to another. More surprisingly, perhaps, it is also used in the manufacture of perfume and incense. You may remember frankincense from a story about someone born round about two thousand years ago and given to him on his birthday – that started its life out as a resin although its manufacture does render it synthetic.

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Image Credit Flickr User Pierre Pouliqiun

Resin is something of a puzzle and why plants secrete it has been the subject of heated debate for many years. Resins consist of compounds that do not seem to play any part in the main physiology (how something functions as a living organism) of the plants from which it comes. So some scientists do see it as a waste product – an excretion rather than a secretion. Others argue, however, that it is a secretion as it has many benefits to the plant. The compounds inside resins seem to have an effect on a wide range of insects and herbivores – a deadly one at that. Plus resin can also attract birds and insects that can stand its toxicity while at the same time snacking on the predators of the plant.

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Resin is usually a viscous liquid – in every day terms viscosity is thickness so, for example, water is thin and honey is thick. You have already figured out which resin is. This liquid is made up of a large and very varied class of hydrocarbons known as terpenes. Strangely enough, plants are not the only living things that produce them – some termites and butterflies do as well. The bits that makes the resin sticky are dissolved solids. The constituents of resins can be separated by a lengthy process known as fractional distillation. The different compounds in resin have different boiling points and so they can be separated at the temperature at which they become gaseous and they can then be collected on their own.

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Some plants produce explosive resin. The Jeffrey Pine of California produces resin which is highly volatile – that mean it has, under the right circumstances – a tendency to vaporize. When people tried to distil it in nineteenth century America, they thought it was Ponderosa Pine resin. A number of distilleries exploded as a result of this mis-classification and the mistake was put right in something of a hurry. The reason behind the explosion was that the Jeffrey Pine resin is made up largely of pure heptanes – highly flammable. Distillation of Jeffrey Pine resin continues to be very dangerous to this day but the denizens of California have managed to get it right since the great pine explosions of 1852.

Image Credit Flickr User Onno Szweers

Image Credit Wikimedia

There are some resins which, when they are soft, are called oleo-resins. When they contain either cinnamic or benzoic acid they are known as balsams – and these have traditionally been used in optics. They are also used in oil painting to produce a warm glow effect and have made their way in to at least one cough mixture as well. Most people have heard of amber – which is resin in its fossilized form. However, you can also get African Copal and again, as with amber there are often insects trapped inside, frozen in time. Copal is distinct from amber as – comparatively – it is very young, under a million years old.

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Resin is first visible on the bark of a tree as a tiny bubble, much like when your skin is pricked and blood forms a perfect but minute sphere. Many people have uncomfortable first contact with resin. They will lean against a tree or sit upon one and when they remove themselves they will find that they have resin sticking all over their clothes. As is the case with chewing gum – rather than wash the clothing in order to remove the substance it is a much better idea to put them in a freezer and then chip off the pieces after a few hours.

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There are some places in the world where fossilized resin – amber – can be found in great quantities. Kämpinge in Sweden is one such place. Located by the sea, when storms begin at the end of the summer the locals make a beeline for the beach as amber is washed up in large quantities, so much so that it is referred to as the ‘gold of the north’ (though some amber can be blue!). Sometimes pieces weighing over one kilo can be found, although they are rare. The reason that it washes up is because it is a little heavier than water and so floats like soap near the sea bed. Eventually it comes up on the shore – helped by the storms – and so the later months of the year are always the best to go amber hunting.

Image Credit Wikimedia

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In ancient times up to the present it was believed that amber had healing properties and as such was often worn as a charm or a necklace or even carried in a small pouch. It was believed that the presence of amber would help to relieve such maladies as rheumatism and sore throats. Ironic then that it is in fact resin that has the medicinal properties and has long been used in herbal medicine. This insect is not quite getting those benefits, however.

Image Credit Flickr User Kelly CDB

Or these.

Image Credit Flickr User Paul Garland

So, there you have it – a short tour of the mystery of resin. Although its actual purpose is for now shrouded in some mystery there is no denying its innate – if sometimes dangerous or even deadly – beauty.

Image Credit Flickr User Dietmar Down Under

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First Image Credit Flickr User Pierre Pouliqiun

Pressure

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sat, 12 May 2012 11:37:00 +0000

In America, through pressure of conformity, there is freedom of choice, but nothing to choose from. - Peter Ustinov.

Image Credit Flickr User Kevin Dooley

The Scarf

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sat, 12 May 2012 11:27:00 +0000

The subject matter of this animated short may well have played as much a part in your life as that of its young protagonist. A young boy is pleased when his grandmother comes to stay (they are the best, after all!) yet his excitement as this addition to the household slowly turns to bemusement and even anger.

His grandmother is suffering from Alzheimer’s and the grandmother is ‘there and not there, changing and changing again’.

This is a heartfelt and touching short film, created by Carla Veldman. Even if your family has not been affected by this dreadful condition I am sure you will be touched by this moving and beautifully made film.

Avengers Disassembled

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sat, 12 May 2012 09:17:00 +0000

It isn’t often that an animation captures the immediate zeitgeist, perhaps because of the time which is consumed in their creation. However, I think you might agree that Junaid Chundrigar’s Disassembled brings us a tongue in cheek freshness to a movie genre which is in danger of taking itself far too seriously. Here you will see any number of superheroes, including Thor, Captain America, the X-Men and Fantastic Four having what can only be called a very bad day.

You will most likely have your own favorite moment here but I have to say that mine came with the Nick Fury moment when, well, you will see for yourself. Chundrigar is about to graduate from the Utrecht School of the Arts, where he studied animation so come on, someone, give the lad a job!

Supermoon May 2012

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:41:00 +0000

Yesterday (6 May) was one of those evenings that sky gazers have been anticipating for a long time. A rare lunar phenomenon happened. You may not even notice it yourself if you are simply a casual observer but last night the moon will appeared larger and brighter than normal. Take a look at these amazing pictures to get an idea what all the fuss was about.

Image Credit Flickr User Nancy-D

Image Credit Flickr User ericwagner

Some astrologists refer to this as a supermoon but there are even those who are calling last nights moon an extreme supermoon because the moon was also at the fullest part of its sequence. The real name for the term is rather different – astrological purists refer to it as a lunar perigree.

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Image Credit Flickr User JasonHines

As the moon’s orbit around the earth is elliptical the difference between its furthest and nearest points would, at first glance, be cause for concern (and if the distance between the two happened overnight it would most certainly be a time to, well, panic). 254,000 miles is the furthest the moon is ever away from the earth. At is closest it is still 220,000 miles away but that means that it is closer to us by 34,000 miles.

Image Credit Flickr User robinohia

Image Credit Flickr User DileepEduri

While it is true that tidal forces increase by about fifteen percent during a lunar perigree that does not mean that tides will be higher by the same percentage. The average perigree tidal rise is around an inch – nothing much to throw your arms up in horror there, then! In fact the dire effects that the moon is said to have on the weather during its perigree are largely a creation of the blogosphere. Here at Kuriositas we are happy to stand up and be counted when it comes to debunking what amounts to lunatic lunar conspiracy theory!

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First Image Credit Bill Collinson

Victorian Street Life in London

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sun, 06 May 2012 20:48:00 +0000

In 1876, six years after the death of Charles Dickens, the streets of the English capital still looked very much like the famous author had described. Poverty, disability and filth were everywhere: people lived a precarious and marginal existence working on the streets of London. Two men became determined to document this – and the book they produced shocked a nation.

Radical journalist Adolphe Smith conducted interviews with the poor and down and outs of London. Yet this had been done before. The unique selling point of this book was his collaboration with photographer John Thomson. These pictures - such as the one above of a young girl searching drinking houses for an inebriate parent, were taken with a camera using the glass plate method (Eastman would not develop film until the next decade). They stunned the British middle classes and made their book – Street Life of London – an immediate best seller.

Their subjects included John Day, above, known as the temperance sweep. Thrown out at ten by his alcoholic father he struggled till finally securing consistent work as a sweep he never touched a drop of liquor. The book is now seen as a seminal work in the history of documentary photography and pictures from Street Life of London have recently been released in to the public domain by the London School of Economics.

They show a structured reality of their day – due to the length of exposure the subjects of the photographs had to be posed. Yet their lives come down, many in their own words, through three centuries, as clearly as the day they were written down by the erudite Mr Smith.

Here we have the ancient and wonderfully named Jacobus Parker who, as well as being a shoe shine, described himself to the author as a pedlar and dramatic reader. Although still financially struggling at the age of almost seventy he has no regrets: "Greed of gain, sir, has never been my motto. It is but a poor object to fill up every nook and cranny of a human heart from boyhood to old age, as it does with many."

Britain still had an empire to run and in 1876 any young men ardent for some desperate glory would make their way to the Mitre and Dove public house. There the grizzled and boozy recruiting sergeants of any number of regiments would cajole young aspirants to military honors. Smith notes the presence, in this picture, of the local police officer. “This group would not, however, have been complete without giving a glimpse at Mr. Cox, the policeman, to whose discretion and pacific interference may be attributed the order which is generally preserved even under the most trying circumstances at the Mitre and Dove."

Having driven an omnibus for almost half a century, 1876 was to see the retirement of Cast-Iron Billy (left). Younger drivers had continually overtaken the old man, consistently stealing his passengers from him and so his firm had no choice but to pay him off. “I’m lost, I’ve been put off my perch. I don't mind telling of you I’m not so ‘andy wi' the ribbons as in my younger days I was. Twice in my life I’ve been put off, and this finishes me. I'll never hold the whip again that's been in my hand these three and forty year, never! I can't sit at 'ome, my perch up there was more 'ome to me than 'anythink.' Havin' lost that I'm no good to nobody; a fish out o’ water I be."

Then there is the door to door doctor with his club foot and ointments to sell.He had been virtually blind, due to what medical experts classified as atrophy. "I fell in with a gentleman selling ointment, he gave me a box, which I used for my eyes. I used the ointment about a month, and found my sight gradually returning. The gentleman who makes the ointment offered to set me up in business with his goods. I had no money, but he gave me everything on trust. It was a good thing for both of us, because I was a sort of standing advertisement for him and for myself." Whether or not he was telling Adolphe Smith the whole truth and nothing but the truth is known only to him and so lost to time.

The whole set is fascinating - you can watch through it above. Or, if this has whetted your appetite, the LSE has the complete book available free here (64mb PDF).

will

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sat, 05 May 2012 13:26:00 +0000

This is a very simple story and one which I think will touch you. There have been any number of takes on the dreadful events of 9/11 but I this is the first animated perspective I have seen. This version of events surround a father and his daughter – their bond is not to be broken by history as it overtakes them.

This is a daring piece of animation – something as emotionally charged as 9/11 is, when recreated for what is effectively entertainment must, simply in the act of its creation, attract hostility from some quarters.

Yet Eusong Lee (an independent filmmaker from California) approaches that awful day with a great deal of sensitivity that, I hope, you are sure to be touched by its honest intentions, not to mention its content.

When I Grow Up

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sat, 05 May 2012 12:59:00 +0000

There are many decisions we face in life and one of the earliest ones (at least when it comes to tedious papers we have to write at school) is what I want to be when I grow up. Here, one little girl is faced with such a question and the answer is not forthcoming. There is just so much choice! Take a look at the last person on the right on the first row. Is one of her options to become a Time Lord? I swear, that is the spitting image of Matt Smith's Doctor Who.

This animated short is the thesis work of Jasmin Lai for her last year at Calarts. Let’s hope that she decides to stay as an animator because from the evidence she supplies here, there is an awful lot of good work to come from her imagination in the future!

Modified Social Benches

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sat, 05 May 2012 11:10:00 +0000

If you live in the Belgian coastal village of De Haan and find yourself in need of a rest some recent additions to the town’s provision of benches might make you lift an eyebrow before you sit yourself down. They add a whole new dimension to the phrase I didn’t know where to put myself.

The benches are not, as you may well suspect, the latest gift of a whacked out municipality to an unsuspecting public, however. They do, though, serve as real benches and are not safely ensconced in an art gallery. These crazy benches are artist Jeppe Hein’s creations and he wants you to sit on them.

Called Modified Social benches, Hein’s public seats are designed to evoke unexpected behaviour from those who encounter them. Although we see the benches alone here, the public are more than welcome to interact with them – though whether they will result in a restful repose it is difficult to say.

Yet rest is not really the objective here – it is conversation. Hein is famous for setting up installations which provoke a dialogue. I can easily imagine my mother’s reaction – I’m not sitting on that! Yet for the more adventurous and those who wish to have the conversation, then Modified Social Benches certainly do invite exploration.

All photographs courtesy of Flickr User Artshooter